Upgrading an old HP Pavilion p6604y to use as a Minecraft server, will I have enough power?

[hanouzz]

Hey all, I am planning to selfhost a Geyser + DiscordSRV MC server on an old PC that otherwise has no use
Here's the PCPP list in advance - https://pcpartpicker.com/user/Hanouzz/saved/ZgFM3C

But the upgrades are essentially:
- Athlon II X2 220 --> Athlon II X4 640
- iGPU --> EVGA GT 730 or 740
- 1tb HDD that I put in my gaming PC when I built it two months ago so really it doesn't even have storage inside it --> 480gb 2.5" SATA SSD
- 3 sticks of 2gb DDR3 --> 2 sticks of 8gb DDR3

The power supply is only 218 watts, is there any way I can cut down on wattage used? The GPU is barely being utilized, only the CPU is really utilized in a Minecraft server, I'm only buying it because I need HDMI and have always wanted an EVGA card. Could I lower the CPU TDP from 95W to something lower? Or should I just buy a 450W PSU? I just would like to know all my options.

[da na]

That'll absolutely have enough power for a Minecraft server as long as you aren't hosting a huge number of people. But why the GPU? Don't need it for a server, and that motherboard almost certainly has an Nvidia nForce/ATi chipset with integrated grpahics for basic video output.

[hanouzz]

Just now, da na said:

That'll absolutely have enough power for a Minecraft server as long as you aren't hosting a huge number of people. But why the GPU? Don't need it for a server, and that motherboard almost certainly has an Nvidia nForce/ATi chipset with integrated grpahics for basic video output.

1. What would you consider "a large amount of people"?
2. Yeah but the mobo doesn't have HDMI and nothing I have display-wise has DVI or VGA

[da na]

3 minutes ago, hanouzz said:

1. What would you consider "a large amount of people"?
2. Yeah but the mobo doesn't have HDMI and nothing I have display-wise has DVI or VGA

A large amount of people as in like 50+.

If you want to cut down your power usage, a $7 DVI-HDMI adapter would sure use less power than a discrete graphics card.

[hanouzz]

3 minutes ago, da na said:

A large amount of people as in like 50+.

If you want to cut down your power usage, a $7 DVI-HDMI adapter would sure use less power than a discrete graphics card.

1. Oh great lol I thought you were gonna say like 7+
2. Alrighty, will do that instead

[da na]

1 minute ago, hanouzz said:

1. Oh great lol I thought you were gonna say like 7+
2. Alrighty, will do that instead

If you have 50 people on the server just building a few things and walking around it won't be a problem. But I wouldn't get 50 people to blow up TNT simultaneously or anything if you know what I mean

[hanouzz]

Just now, da na said:

If you have 50 people on the server just building a few things and walking around it won't be a problem. But I wouldn't get 50 people to blow up TNT simultaneously or anything if you know what I mean

Yeah, for sure. Do you know whether I'd need a BIOS update or not to support the CPU swap?

[da na]

9 minutes ago, hanouzz said:

Yeah, for sure. Do you know whether I'd need a BIOS update or not to support the CPU swap?

Well the CPUs are from different architectures so, since you already have a working CPU with the machine, I'd go ahead and update the BIOS to be safe.

[hanouzz]

1 minute ago, da na said:

Well the CPUs are from different architectures so, since you already have a working CPU with the machine, I'd go ahead and update the BIOS to be safe.

alrighty, will do

[manikyath]

from experience actually hosting on an athlon era system quite a few years ago;

- dont bother with a GPU. minecraft servers dont speak to the GPU AT ALL.

- 6GB RAM probably suffices, given the amount of cpu horsepower that you're stuck with.

- on the note of the CPU.. that upgrade very much is not worth it, you'd be better off getting something intel core i3/i5 that's at least around haswell era, and ditching this system all together.

 

your problem here is that with such an old CPU you'll run out of performance on the tick thread pretty quickly. if you have a few people all in different villages just the villager AI will probably already cap you out.